Plague of Somali pirates continues. 5 ships taken over the weekend.

[Dinner]

A Canadian frigate stopped one piracy act -- they flew a helicopter near the boats with a giant "STOP" sign (in somali). I'm not kidding.

I imagine if you simply open fire and kill them all they'd figure out you're unhappy.

[TCO]

Put a bounty on them like Tazmanians. They're not real anyhow...

[bc1871]

Well, I guess if we capture them, we can always then rendition them off to a country that allows "enhanced interrogation" techniques.

[Zkribbler]

It still hasn't been adequately explained to me why we don't just shoot pirates on sight. Turning them over to Somalia isn't much of a deterrent, after all, but the death penalty,instantly applied and without exception, might be.

Bah, shooting them on sight will not act as a deterent. You put them on a chopper, fly them to 1,000 feet above their home villages, toss them out and see if they can fly. Now, that would send a friggin' message.

[chequita guevara]

A simpler option would be to use a convoy system.

[David Floyd]

che,

A simpler option would be to use a convoy system.

Simpler than a policy of "shoot on sight"? How? You know how much a convoy system would likely cost, in terms of convoy protection, organization, etc.? Also, typically convoys are used only in times of war - are you saying we should treat the pirate situation like a war?

No, what you mean is that a convoy system would dramatically reduce the number of acts of piracy, while also preserving the lives of the pirates. Except that I don't give a **** about preserving the lives of the pirates, nor do many other people. A convoy system would simply be accepting that the pirates will continue to exist, and would be an attempt to react to them. A "shoot on sight" policy would be much more pro-active, and would have the added (and also primary) benefit of killing pirates.

[David Floyd]

Zkribbler,

Bah, shooting them on sight will not act as a deterent. You put them on a chopper, fly them to 1,000 feet above their home villages, toss them out and see if they can fly. Now, that would send a friggin' message.

Don't know if you're serious or not, but I'd be fine with that. Unfortunately we likely don't have the balls to do it.

[FrostyBoy]

Pirates killed Sir Peter Blake (yachtsman for America's cup). The bastards.

Just for the record, Canada never won the America's cup. I just wanted to throw that random fact in for no apparent reason.

[BeBMan]

I think everyone should be shoot on sight. Just to be sure

[Lancer]

Kill them, kill them alot.

[Asher]

Asher,



The difference is, these nutso libertarians of whom you speak have, presumably, not committed acts of piracy. If they have, then by all means, shoot away.



Put on trial, where? Somalia? That's a joke.

If it is, it's yours. I said an international court.

Maybe set one up on Gitmo.

[Asher]

Pirates killed Sir Peter Blake (yachtsman for America's cup). The bastards.

Just for the record, Canada never won the America's cup. I just wanted to throw that random fact in for no apparent reason.

No one cares in Canada. We're too busy playing real sports.

[Lorizael]

I don't like to admit it, but I mostly agree with Floyd on this issue. These pirates are a disgrace to the name and don't deserve proper treatment. I mean seriously, a dozen guys wit AK-47s on a raft is not a pirate crew. Where are the eye patches, the hooks, the parrots?

[Lancer]

Parrots have pirates?

We aren't dealing with blonds or sistas here, we CAN win this.

[Patroklos]

A simpler option would be to use a convoy system.

In any case, we simply need to shoot them while in the act, and otherwise arrest them when found during random boardings (already authorized and done anyway for anti human trafficing UNSC resolutions).

For the pirates right now there is little risk, that needs to change.